A Lunar Wedding gone wrong
by Lorebeth the lunar
Summary: It has been two years since Levana's fall from power and Cinder finds herself begrudging her duties as Queen of Luna. Especially when the union is all but blackmailing her into doing what they want. But when Emperor Kaito is put in danger, Cinder must put aside her temper to do whatever it takes to save Kai and her people.


Cinder sucked in a breath as Iko zipped up the back of the gown. She begrudgingly took a look at herself in the mirror.

"The last time I wear a dress, it didn't go so well," she said to the group of ladies who were fixated on getting themselves ready too.

"What about the coronation?" Cress asked, "You wore a dress then too."

Scarlet waved a dismissive hand, "She barely wore it. She was there for a minute to get her crown and then she disappeared, leaving us to deal with that pompous crowd."

Cinder grunted to herself, "Because the people of Luna would so be grateful of their cyborg queen that knows nothing of their culture or heritage. I was saving my skin." She said this last part by raising her left hand to eye level. The metal glittered under the lights. She thought of how her royal advisors had offered her a skin grafting on her metallic...eccentricities. She had reluctantly declined. It was too tempting to call up a glamor. To make herself beautiful and to make others see her that way for once. But these stupid cybernetic attachments of hers...They kept her anchored to reality. She wasn't only a lunar. Or royal. She was a cyborg and it was too easy to forget it. It was too easy to slip down the road that Levana had gone down. So. Cinder kept seeing the cyborg hand and foot as a reminder of that.

Iko squealed something impossible to understand, bringing Cinder back to reality. Then the droid repeated, clasping her hands together and blue braids swaying, "You look gorgeous ,Cinder!" For the first time since they had entered the room, Winter spoke sadly , "You look like a sunrise." They had all forgotten that she was there. Two years ago, after the Rampian crew and Jacin had been separated, he had been imprisoned on earth temporarily. After bribing an Earthen guard, he escaped and searched for the device Linh Garan had invented. The same one that had kept Cinder from using her gift but kept her sane.

Jacin had hoped to bring it to Luna and give it to Winter. He had succeeded too but at a great cost. With the Great War going on, many of the Union leaders had joined together and planned an attack on the Lunar Palace. Winter was knocked out from anesthetics whilst an Earthern doctor , who had traveled there in secret, installed Garan's invention. Jacin had told him that he would do anything for Winter to be sane again. But meanwhile the Union had sent assassins to the palace and...Jacin had protected Winter. Without him, she would have had an eternal sleep. He guarded her door and fought bravely. But in the end, it had been too much. In the end, it was a single bullet to the brain that killed him. The attack had been called off due to strange activity by one Rampian in particular. But Jacin had paid the ultimate sacrifice. Winter got back her sanity only to have it unravel at this news. She hardly ever said anything these days and her expression was always solemn. Cinder tried to console her step cousin but her attempts were in vain. There were some scars that could never fade.

"There," Cress said once the stylists were gone. "All done."

Each of the girls were the same flowing, peach dress. The three looked incredibly different in them. Cinder picked up her gloves ut at the last minute decided against them. Iko were her usual skirt and tank. She wasn't coming with them. Cinder might have been the queen and Iko was her best friend but the there would be an uproar if the Lunars found out that an escort droid was attending one of the biggest ceromonies of the decade.

Iko droop an arm around Cinder's shoulders and said, as if they were teammates going over their game plan before a match.

"So I will be watching it all on my port but I expect you to tell me everything again when you get back." Cinder made her bet attempt at a smile but it came out as a grimace.

"What's wrong?" Scarlet asked, her voice softening with concern. Scarlet had never been her good friend but they had been through too much together to ignore. And , when it came down to it, Scarlet was always trust worthy.

"I can't do this," Cinder said shaking her head.

"It's just your nerves," Cress said dismissively. Like it wasn't the biggest change of Cinder's life. Like it wasn't her wedding day.

"He didn't even ask me because he wanted to marry me. The union wanted the alliance to be concrete. As if I hadn't signed all their treaties and changed. Levana's laws!" Cinder shouted and picked up the first thing she could find, a bottle of hairspray, and threw it at the wall. Then there was a hand on her shoulder. Winter.

"You had to do it. They threatened to stop all imports to Luna. We'd all starve with our crops and agricultural land burned after the war."

"And after that anti-Luna group burned the new crops down," Scarlet spat, as if the words were acid in her mouth.

The stupid thing was it wasn't even the Eastern Commonwealth that wanted this marriage alliance. It was the American. Republic. And the European Federation. And the African nation. And everyone but Kai and Cinder. The other Union leaders were taking advantage of the fact that, for once, it was Luna that was vulnerable. So they had decided that as soon as Cinder turned eighteen, she would marry Emperor Kai, whom she had seen less then 8 times since her coronation. They used to comm but after the decision for them to marry had been made, they seemed to both be avoiding each other until they inevitably had to spend everyday together.

"This is practically blackmail!" Cinder screamed in fury. She'd said it at least a hundred times to them and they'd agreed but , in the end, they weren't the ones who were forced to marry. They'd never know just how unfair it all was.

"It could be worse..." Cress said in a small voice. "You could have had to marry Queen Camilla's son. They all shuddered in unison as they recalled the image of the 21 year old who still had the worst case of acne Cinder had ever seen.

"At least you know and love Emperor Kaito ," Scarlet said. Cinder's entire body tensed.

"I don't..." She couldn't finish those words because an orange light flickered violently in her vision. Stars, was she glad she couldn't blush.

"At least it's Kai." Iko repeated to her under her breath. And that was the only thought that got a Cinder to walk out of the dressing room and wait outside of the grand hall. They waited for the music to begin playing. But it never did.


End file.
